Freshman swimmer Adelaide Reaser competed in the Speedo – Winter Junior Nationals, Dec. 9.
The meet is for top-ranked swimmers 18 and under. Swimmers could be freshmen in college, high schoolers or Olympians, Reaser said.
Reaser qualified for the meet at the Phoenix Fall Classic against the University of Chicago with a 4:20.68 400 Individual Medley, Nov. 18.
Reaser was one-hundredth of a second off from beating the Truman State University 400 IM record, head men’s and women’s swim coach Bryce Kober said. The record has been held since 2003 by Kelli Dudley.
The meet itself is fast-paced, Kober said. There are only a few meets with faster qualifying standards than Jr. Nationals, including the TYR Pro Series, Phillips-66 US Open, US Summer Nationals and US Olympic Trials. Reaser said she would be excited to see if she could make it to those meets as well.
“I felt good about my swim,” Reaser said. “It wasn’t a personal best, but I felt like I prepared for it, and I was also just really grateful to be able to represent Truman State University at a meet like this. For a lot of swimmers, this meet has been a goal of theirs for a while, so I’m just really grateful to be able to be there and just represent the school.”
Reaser said it had been a goal of hers to make it to the Junior Nationals for a long time. Reaser placed 52nd with a 4:26:49 400 IM.
This was the first time a Truman swimmer qualified for Winter Junior Nationals since he has been here, Kober said.
“We’re kind of on a good trajectory with her,” Kober said. “We’re really proud of her for representing our school at a big meet like that.”
The training Reaser has done this season has led to great improvement, Reaser said. Reaser appreciates the work that Kober and the Truman Athletic Department put in to allow her to swim at a meet like the Junior Nationals.
Kober agrees the training they have put in this season has led to success in other meets as well.
“I think we’ve really hit the ground running from day one in September and that showed at our mid-season meet,” Kober said. “We had one of the best mid-season meets we’ve had in a long time, a lot of best times.”
Kober said this season has been especially tough because the team is down a coach. The program also hopes to see a bigger recruiting class next year and bring up their numbers, Kober said.
It is expected that Reaser will make it to the NCAA Championship Meet, Kober said. She was number one in the Nation for a while, right now she is ranked in the 400IM.
Reaser said going to Junior Nationals is a valuable experience going into the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships and beyond.
“I was just very happy to get to go there and wear the Truman cap and all that,” Reaser said. “It was a good experience.”